Time was when companies that helped authors publish their own books were known as “vanity presses” or “vanity publishers,” and when having a book published by one of these companies didn’t count as “real” publishing. Vanity presses were almost entirely the bastion of inferior authors, who couldn’t get a “real” (that is, legitimate, mainstream, conventional) publisher to accept their books and who, desperate to see their beloved books in print, were willing to <gasp> PAY—usually exorbitant rates—to get their books published.
Yes, there were a few exceptions. College professors, heeding the old “publish or perish” rule, would willingly pay to get their books in print, often without even submitting to mainstream publishers first, and this was no indictment of the quality of their work. Similarly, researchers on esoteric subjects that wouldn’t attract a large enough readership to interest a mainstream publisher went the “vanity press” route for reasons other than vanity.
But a funny thing started happening less than a decade ago: Self-publishing started to turn respectable, and has grown even more so over the intervening years. Gone is the stigma of being self-published. No longer does it fail to count as being “really published” just because you paid to publish your book yourself.
Authors have come to realize that there are distinct advantages to taking the reins in their own hands, and readers and reviewers have come to accept, by and large, that “self-published” does not automatically equate to “inferior.”
The third book I ever had published—by one of the Big Name Publishing Houses in New York, back in the mid-nineties—is an excellent example of one advantage of self-publishing—or, at least, one disadvantage to mainstream publishers. I had called the book Great American Games. It was a compendium of games of all sorts: quiet games, active games, children’s games, adult games, party games, games for school or church field days, and more. The first publisher I sent it to snapped it up but decided to retitle it. “We’re calling it Totally Terrific Family Games,” the editor told me.
“But they AREN’T just family games!” I protested, enumerating some of the categories of games in the book that had nothing to do with families.
“The word FAMILY is selling books this year,” the editor informed me, “so that’s what the marketing department decided.” I argued, but in vain.
The book bombed. To this day I believe it would have had a better chance if it had gone out under my original title. And with self-publishing, of course, that sort of snafu never occurs.
Then there is the long lead time. A conventional publisher might take three months or more just to decide if they even want the book, and then there’s frequently a year or more before the book sees the light of print. Self-published authors don’t face anywhere near that long a lead time to get their books published. And it isn’t just a question of the author’s impatience to see their work in print. The book may be seasonal or topical. There may be a very good reason to want it published quickly.
With many mainstream publishers, the author has no input in cover design. (This is not universally true, and some of the so-called “boutique publishers” are accommodating to an author’s wishes, but by and large, with conventional publishers—especially the Big Name houses—the author is at the publisher’s mercy.) This is not true if you are self-published.
If you’re writing a trilogy, a series, or even just a sequel, you want to be sure the first book is published or you’re spinning your wheels for nothing to write the subsequent book(s). This is another point in favor of self-publishing.
There are other arguments in favor of self-publishing, too, but I think I’ve already made my point. The biggest argument of all, though, is that self-publishing has become respectable, and few people anymore look down their noses at self-published authors.
Of course, inevitably, the acceptability of self-publishing has led to the emergence of some, excuse me for saying it, crap finding its way out there. Some of it is books that are poorly written or just plain boring. Some of it is books that weren’t edited at all, or were edited by the author’s best friend who teaches third grade and therefore is presumed to be a capable editor. But mixed in with the garbage, there are a lot of good books, interesting books, funny books, helpful books, books that, in many cases, might have been accepted by a mainstream publisher, had the author chosen to try submitting to conventional publishing houses first.
It’s a new day in publishing, for sure. And, in my opinion, with the playing field leveled it’s a better day.